Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 86
April 4, 2017
Jokes about race and sex are out, so religion takes their place
In the culture of the workplace, it is now taboo to make jokes about race. Nor can you make jokes about ethnicity. Nor can you make jokes about disabilities. Now you can no longer make jokes about sex. Or gender. So what can you make jokes about? Religion. Those now forbidden attempts at humor at [Read More...]
Democrats will filibuster away their power
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, so Democrats are planning to filibuster. This will trigger the “nuclear option” of Republicans voting to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster when it comes to nominations like this. Thus the Democrats will “make a statement” that will diminish their ability to [Read More...]
Bob Dylan archive opens for researchers
In more Dylan news, the Bob Dylan Archive here in Oklahoma is now open for researchers. It won’t be open to the public for another two years. It will then be housed in the Woody Guthrie Museum in Tulsa. (Read our earlier post on how Oklahoma got Dylan’s archives.) But the collection has been sufficiently organized and [Read More...]
April 3, 2017
Why April is the cruelest month
“April is the cruelest month.” That snatch of poetry always comes to mind when the calendar turns to April Fool’s Day. But surely April isn’t the cruelest month! April showers bring May flowers! April marks the time when Winter is over and Spring has sprung! So why would the poet T. S. Eliot say [Read More...]
National debt will double in 30 years
The Congressional Budget Office released figures that project the national debt to double by 2047. That would take it from the existing 75% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is bad enough, to 150% of the GDP, which is unthinkable. I know! Let’s cut taxes and increase spending! Illustration by Rilsonav, “Debt,” Pixabay, Creative [Read More...]
And now, the nature rights movement
The language of “rights” tends to win all arguments. There are “human rights.” These include “women’s rights,” “minority rights,” “gay rights.” Then people started asserting “animal rights.” A new strategy for some environmentalists is to assert “nature rights.” In a recent victory for that movement, a river in New Zealand held sacred to the Maoris [Read More...]
March 31, 2017
Criminalizing the opposition
The state of California has slapped 15 felony charges on David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who made the undercover videos that revealed the organ-trafficking and other moral corruption of Planned Parenthood. The charge: recording “confidential information” without permission. California has not, however, prosecuted similar secret video stings that exposed the mistreatment of ducks and chickens. [Read More...]
Trump vows to fight conservative lawmakers in next election
President Trump, frustrated at the conservative Congressmen who thwarted his health care bill, vowed to “fight them” in the midterm elections. This is taken to mean that he will encourage primary opponents to run against them. That would presumably mean finding moderate Republicans–the sort that supported Paul Ryan’s health care plan–to run in hard-core Republican [Read More...]
Dylan will pick up his Nobel Prize this weekend
Bob Dylan, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, shocked the Swedish Academy by not attending the ceremony in December to receive the honor. But he is doing some concerts in Sweden this weekend, so he has arranged to pick up the prize. He will not, however, give the traditional lecture. The thing is, [Read More...]
March 30, 2017
Student suspended for disagreeing with Muslim professor
Muslims believe that Jesus was not really crucified. According to the Qur’an, That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah“;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, [Read More...]
